Urban birding at Hull: Icy East Park

The day started gloomy and with showers. There didn't seem to have been a frost and the pavements were clear of ice, but I decided to stay local and head to East Park. The lake had a good covering of ice, some of it under a layer of water. Despite the couple of freezing rain showers and the light northerly wind that made my hands suffer even with gloves, conditions were ideal for the enthusiast ring-finder. Gulls appear to feel relaxed on ice in the middle of lakes, they rest, groom, and generally loaf, safe from walkers by and running dogs. I scanned with my binoculars the many gulls standing on the ice. I couldn't find any ringed Herring Gulls, re-found Common Gull TT33, from last November, and found some new Black-headed gulls from three different schemes:

TT33, common gull from Poland.

Black-headed gull TAMA from Poland.

JME3 from Norway.

P700 from Lithuania.

A fourth ringed gull only had a metal ring, and only the last number (6) was readable, and the first 2 letters (ST, possibly Stavanger?).

Gulls on ice.

Also of note were 2 pairs of Mute Swans, a drake Shoveler, the Red-crested Pochard and a drake Wigeon and two Goldcrests. The Grey Heron was resting on the central island, well camouflaged. The Goosanders were quite scattered and hard to count, my estimate is 10.

Goosander.

Goosanders under the close attention of Black-headed gull.

Shoveler.

Shoveler

Wigeon.

Dead terrapin?

One of the cob swans reached the edge of the ice and was determined to push forward, breaking it with its weight. After some effort, it decided to turn round to its partner.

Mute swan on icy lake.

Grey heron, hiding in the central island.